[Passage]
[Haggai 2: 9]
“The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the LORD of hosts.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This is the 34th Anniversary Eve Service of this church. Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has led this church for the last 34 years. God the Father has given us the message titled, “Glory” for this service. As the title says, each moment of the past 34 years was filled with the glory of God. Let us briefly review this history of this ‘Glory‘.
Listening to this message, I hope you will find the answer as to how such things were made possible. I hope you will think about whether such things could have been possible, had God not established this church and had it not been for the shepherd established by God.
Today’s reading passage Haggai 2:9 says, “The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the LORD of hosts.”
As for us too, the later glory of this sanctuary will be much greater than the glory during the past 34 years. This church will reveal the glory of God more greatly beginning with this 34th anniversary. I’d like all the pastors, elders, and all the members to be united as one through trust and love and make the history of this great and amazing glory. I pray in the name of the Lord that each of you will become the main players.
[Main]
Dear brothers and sisters,
I will talk to you about the history of glory for the last 34 years in four parts, which are the decades of 1980’s, 90’s, 2000’s, and 2010 onward. In this message, I’d like to review the 80’s and 90’s, which were the beginning era of this church, and I will speak to you about the rest in the Sunday Morning and Evening services.
Now let us get back to the 1980’s.
As God told me to open the church ‘when the sun is scorching’, this church had the opening service on July 25, 1982, when the sun was scorching hot. I delivered a message with the title, “The Treasure of Treasures Is Faith” with 9 adults and 4 children in attendance.
The building was not completed at that time and we didn’t have furniture either. The members prayed in one accord for 5 to 6 hours a day. Then, God sent to us church members every week and gave us the necessary things, too. As a result, in the anniversary service on October 10, 77 days after the first service, we had more than 100 members, and we had everything needed for the sanctuary, too.
Our church took after the example of the Early Church depicted in the book of Acts. Acts 2:43 says, “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles,” and verse 47 says, “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
In the early church, the word of life was preached and the signs and wonders confirmed the word preached. As a result, the number of those who were being saved was added day by day. God blessed our church to have explosive revival right from the beginning of the church, just like the early church.
We had only 13 members in the opening service, and the number increased rapidly year by year. The actual area we used as the sanctuary was only 50m² (540 ft²), so it was already full within less than a year. Not just the sanctuary but the space for my residence and the corridor were filled with members. Some people had to sit on the stairs or even in the bathroom.
The members came to earnestly long for a bigger sanctuary and we moved to a place with about 7,000 ft² or 650 m² of area, on December 21, 1984. But this second sanctuary was also filled very quickly after just one revival meeting. So, after two years, in 1987, we moved to the 3rd sanctuary which had about double size of the second sanctuary. The 3rd sanctuary was also filled in three months, after one revival meeting.
So, we moved to the 4th sanctuary in Guro Dong, in February 1991. To commemorate moving into this sanctuary, we held a 2-week continuous revival meeting. In the Friday all night service which was the last meeting, the number of registered members reached 10,000. Our church grew up at an explosive rate for the 10 years after the opening. As a result, it was among the top 50 churches in the world by “Christian World” of the United States, in February 1993.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” As said, this church experienced explosive revival with the souls sent by God the Father and revealed the glory of God through it.
This was possible because, first of all, we had the word of life given by God. In May 1983, God the Father made me stop going to revival meetings at other churches and let me concentrate on prayers. It was to give me the answers to the prayers I had offered for the past 7 years. Namely, it was to give explanations of the Bible, especially on difficult passages. So, after the Sunday evening service, I went to various prayer houses and prayed for all 5 days, and came back on Friday.
The sermon series “Message of the Cross” was also received through those prayers. After this message was compiled as a book, it’s been published in 59 languages. It is on the List of Literary Works by Number of Translations of Wikipedia.
After the Message of the Cross, the Lord explained about and showed to me the deep spiritual realm. That was the time when God also gave me the messages of “Fruits of Holy Spirit,” “Beatitudes,” “Spiritual Love” with which we can partake in the divine nature of God.
In May 1984, during the week in which I had my birthday, God commanded me not to go back to the church for the Friday all-night service but keep on praying with a 3-day fast. Then, as soon as the 3-day fast was finished, the Lord began to teach me about the kingdom of Heaven. It was such a precious gift that I cannot change with anything in the world.
The Lord kept on teaching me about the kingdom of Heaven and now two books on Heaven are published. Right now, it’s been published in more than 30 languages, giving hope of Heaven to numerous readers.
In May 1986, I was ordained as a pastor. The Lord moved me to offer 21-day vowed prayer, so I tried to have communication with God along with fasting. Then the Lord finally began to explain the book of Revelation. These messages were preached in Sunday morning services for 4 years. The church members realized now is the end time. They were spiritually awakened and spread the gospel even more, and the church had more revival.
Brothers and sisters, another secret of the revival of this church is that many signs and wonders took place like in early church. Even before I opened this church, many sick people were healed through my prayers. And what do you think happened after opening of the church? Signs were manifested every week.
Even those who had terminal diseases were healed as soon as they came to the church. Those with crutches came to walk and jump. The blind came to see, the mute to speak, and infertile couples received conception through prayers. A person with a broken hand was healed through prayer and he could move it freely. People with paralysis, cancers, tuberculosis, leukemia and many other diseases were healed, and the demon-possessed were also set free.
For this reason, I was invited to churches all over the country to speak for revival meetings. Everywhere I went, God gave the spirit of repentance, divine healing, and various blessings. After I was ordained as a pastor, I spoke for non-denominational meetings every month, and mostly I preached the “Message of the Cross.”
They were about such topics as “Why did God place the tree of knowledge?”, “Why is only Jesus our Savior?” and “Eternal life only by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man.” I’ve always been and will be preaching these messages. It’s because such messages bring about grace of repentance and divine healing.
Consequently, they give glory to God. It is according to Matthew 15:31 that says, “So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.”
